In sixth grade, my Baywood School softball team in Castro Valley traveled to Fairview School in Hayward. I remember making a great catch at shortstop, but Fairview won the game.

As a product of Hayward schools, I mentioned this briefly last week when speaking to an auditorium full of Fairview students about Made in Hayward, the pride project pushed by Hayward School Superintendent Stan Dobbs. FairviewÕs assembly was just one of similar events going on all over the district on January 24 as Hayward students and staff took the Made in Hayward pledge. Everyone was treated to a school district video, with local leaders such as Superintendent Dobbs and Mayor Mike Sweeney urging all to endorse this program.

Those reciting the Made in Hayward adult pledge vowed to provide the leadership necessary to give kids the preparation and access to college. The students pledged to do whatever was necessary to be prepared, to gain that access. What ties both pledges together is the dominant theme that Hayward schools can take determined students through a successful education leading to a successful careerÑall the way from pre-school through elementary, middle school, high school, junior college, college, and graduate school. At Cal-State East Bay, they can even achieve a Ph.D.

Thus, as the students loudly and proudly followed Principal John Melvin in saying the pledge aloud, the whole huge room rose to a crescendo at the last line: ÒI AM A MADE IN HAYWARD STUDENT AND I AM COLLEGE BOUND!Ó

Talk, of course, is cheap. ThereÕs much work to be done between pledging and achieving. But a program that generates such mental enthusiasm for education is a terrific place to start.

Bruce Roberts serves on the Hayward Education Foundation Board. He was born in Hayward, graduated from Hayward High in 1964, and received his B.A. and Reading Specialist Credential from Cal-State Hayward, recently retiring from teaching after 35 years.